These are Michael R. Burch's modern English translations of the ancient Japanese poems of Ono no Komachi, who wrote tanka (also known as waka) and was renowned for the beauty of her verse as well as for her physical beauty. Komachi is best known today for her pensive, melancholic and erotic love poems. Her bio follows the poems.
If fields of autumn flowers
can shed their blossoms, shameless,
why can’t I also frolic here —
as fearless, wild and blameless?
—Ono no Komachi, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
I had thought to pluck
the flower of forgetfulness
......
These are original haiku by Michael R. Burch, along with a few wake/tanka and haiku-like poems.
Untitled Haiku
Dark-bosomed clouds
pregnant with heavy thunder ...
the water breaks
―Michael R. Burch
one pillow ...
......
These are original haiku by Michael R. Burch, along with a few wake/tanka and haiku-like poems.
Untitled Haiku
Dark-bosomed clouds
pregnant with heavy thunder ...
the water breaks
―Michael R. Burch
one pillow ...
......
These are Michael R. Burch's modern English translations of the ancient Japanese poems of Ono no Komachi, who wrote tanka (also known as waka) and was renowned for the beauty of her verse as well as for her physical beauty. Komachi is best known today for her pensive, melancholic and erotic love poems. Her bio follows the poems.
If fields of autumn flowers
can shed their blossoms, shameless,
why can’t I also frolic here —
as fearless, wild and blameless?
—Ono no Komachi, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
I had thought to pluck
the flower of forgetfulness
......